Canadian Team - WGC 2017 - Benalla, Australia

Follow the Canadian Team as they prepare for and Compete in the 2017 World Gliding Championships.

03 December 2016

The container with the three gliders arrived safely in Melbourne at the end of November. We received this photo from the shipping company. Everything looks like we packed it. It will go from Melbourne to Benalla after customs is done with it.

22 October 2016

In early September we received confirmation which gliders will
be shipped to Australia .
Luke took care of his trailer with glider preparation for
shipping and I with Sergei took care of building frame and
support fuselages in the container. I took home my glider and my
garage became a design studio of shipping frame. An access to the
glider was very important as I could test if particular design
will fit.
The task which looked as a couple of days project took more then
3 weeks with multiple trips to Home Depot, Canadian Tire,
Princess Auto and Sergei running to his steel struts supplier
constantly.
During the process of building frame we found a lot of problems
as we were restricted with height and width of the container,in
addition trailer had to fit together with wings in very limited
space and just 1/4" error could spell disaster.
The wing securing prototype was made, then tested, then
multiplied by 4 for each wing then suddenly we found out that
trailer will not fit or spacing is wrong and all had to be redone.
It took us 9 hours one day to make dry test with wing loading
where we had to make new adjustments and modifications.
Another 6 hours with 5 people when we did dry test with fitting
trailer and fuselages using SOSA's workshop with fake container
walls.
Early morning October 17 Sergei arrived with his Van, we loaded
all frames and supplies and XG in tow we drove to Polimex
warehouse in Brampton where our container was waiting for us.
Loading into a container took 2 days with 5 people some times 6.
Luckily all preparations confirmed that all fits perfectly and we
had just to make small adjustment to one of the wing support as
it was a little to close to the container wall. In addition we
installed wrong way front beam which we were able to correct in
no time.
Great Thank You to Kris Swietlicki who made pins for securing
wing spars and special axle for our tail dollies. Thank you all
who helped us with loading container, it was a challenge, but
executed without any problems as we finished 10 minutes before
Polimex Forwarding was closing doors.
Container is traveling to Vancouver by train and then by ship
BALAO, ETA Melbourne Australia Nov 28 then by truck to Benalla
where it will wait for our arrival by the end of December.

18 October 2016

The container is now packed and ready to ship to Australia. The gliders should arrive in about 6 weeks and we'll be there in about 9 weeks. Fortunately, our time enroute will not be as long as the container's !

13 October 2016

2W ready to be de-rigged after a long day of cleaning the trailer inside and out to ensure that there is no dirt that might cause concern to Australian customs when the container arrives. A new tire was installed and brand new trailer tires will be packed in the container so there is no dirt on them either.

Over the last month, we have been preparing the gliders, building the racks to secure the pieces in the container as well as cleaning and inspecting the gliders and parachutes to keep them legal to fly.On Monday 17 October, we start to pack the gliders in the container and ship them off to Oz.